For almost a year Mr C has been talking about needing to take time off from corp life. Recently the tone in his voice has changed and the thinking-about-it has become a how-do-we-make-it-happen? After a couple of years of me being lazy about engaging with the art market, I’m back to writing business plans and wondering whether it’s even possible for me to bring in a decent wage from my art.
This week’s writing is a jumble of thoughts, ideas, and complaints that I’ve written down this past couple of months as I figure out whether it’s possible to make money from being an artist. The piece became too long so I’ve split it into two parts: Part I talks about where I’ve been and where I am right now in terms of earning income from art; Part II offers suggestions for systemic and personal change that might support art making as an income stream. There are no clear answers here but I hope this leads to some valuable chat later this week. I’d love you to share your own experiences in the comments and let’s learn from each other.
5 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT SELLING ART
To sell art you need to make art that sells
Art that sells is a formula you need to find and stick to
Nobody cares about your process, they care about the product
For me, selling in person is easier than selling online
If I need to, I can sell art but there are easier ways to make money
Thinking about the times when I made the most money from art, there are two years that stand out.
YEAR 1
Before I moved to the US I worked as a community artist/creative practitioner. Creative Practitioner was a term that was used in a government-funded program to place artists within schools. I spent a whole year (yes, one entire year!) as an artist in residence in the science department of a high school. It was my job to help engage students who didn’t respond to the “normal” classroom approach and to support teachers. I was paid as much as a teacher and it was incredible to receive a consistent, monthly wage. I remember making paper mache animals and volcanos, creating textile hangings based on DNA strings (one won an award), printmaking, and photography. It was an amazing experience and something I look back on as a highlight of my career.
STRATEGY 1 TO EARN MONEY: FIND AN ART-RELATED JOB THAT PAYS
YEAR 2
Ironically, during the first year of the pandemic, 2020, I sold more art than I’ve ever sold in the US in one year. This was because I had a public-facing gallery/studio and could speak face-to-face with collectors. I think also, honestly, folks wanted to support artists at that time so there was also a slight rise in sales due to that, but even so I proved that I CAN make money if I want to. I made art that sells - it was a deliberate strategy. I picked a formula that I was confident would work and stuck to it.
STRATEGY 2 TO EARN MONEY: MAKE ART THAT SELLS AND EITHER RENT A RETAIL STUDIO OR ATTEND ART FAIRS
Notes
There are holes in both strategies. Finding an art-related job where I live in the US is very difficult and since I travel so much the company would need to be amenable to remote working.
My stubbornness prevents me from executing strategy 2 :( I don’t want to work on a formula for making art again but maybe this is one of the times I just have to suck it up and do it.
A recent Instagram ad
There is a heap of nonsense talked about how to sell art and how to make money as an artist. Recently I’ve noticed at least a tripling of Instagram paid posts promoting some kind of artist mentoring group that promises to sell you the secret of selling art. Save your money, there is no secret, there is no magic wand. Selling art is hard and it’s getting harder. The art market is over-saturated - everyone is an artist now thanks to AI - and there have never been enough galleries or art fairs in existence to offer even an inch of a platform to all artists. While I believe most artists can sell some work, the truth is that the majority of artists will never be able to sell enough work to guarantee a stable income for themselves and their families. Making some pocket money is possible but paying the rent/mortgage, utilities, healthcare, grocery bills purely from selling art, that will only be possible for the 1% at the top of the art market pyramid and the continual denial of that truth causes a lot of harm and offers a way-in for unscrupulous folks to profit from artists’ ambition: Witness the ever-increasing artist membership groups and pay-to-play schemes. It also means we never talk about the systemic changes that need to happen in order for artists to thrive.
Here’s part of an email I received from an arts organisation, outlining the cost of showing work in their booth at the San Diego art fair this year:
Cost per Artwork widths:
- Minimum wall space for 1 piece: 1x1 foot or 30x30 cm is $600. In this case, we would hang the work in a vertical column with two other works of the same size, by other artists.
- $1350 per linear foot (30 cm) width for spaces up to 3 feet or 90 cm, and the entire height of the wall (10 feet or 3 meters).
- $1075 per linear foot (or per 30 cm) for spaces between 3 and 7 feet (90 – 210 cm) width and the entire height of the wall (10 feet or 3 meters.
Did you get that? $600 to show ONE small piece of work! $1350 per foot of wall space! Who do you think is really making the money here?
ALL THE WAYS I’VE MADE MONEY FROM ART
selling art
teaching workshops
being paid to talk about my art
paid technician role in a high school
paid artist residencies
paid featured artist at an art fair
stipend for designing and leading public/community art projects (grant funded)
selling ebooks/zines about art topics
selling online courses
paid mentoring sessions
selling in-person creative circles
paid job doing outreach at a non-profit art center
paid commissions
arts advisory service
commission from selling other artists’ work
selling art supplies & sundries
I have never made enough money purely from selling my original art, I have always had to supplement my income with something from the list above. I would LOVE to just create art, sell art, repeat, but right now, with the art I’m making, I know that’s not going to happen: I’ve been merrily exploring my own self-expression this past couple of years and ignoring what’s trending in the art market. Income into my tiny business is generated mostly from mentoring other artists, paid commissions, and the occasional art sale via the studio or Instagram. It’s pocket money not a salary.
I feel like there’s a choice artists have to make: create art as self-expression or create art to sell. What do you think? I’m reminded of the wonderful Rose Wylie (British artist who was “discovered” in her late 70s) who was taken by surprise when galleries began taking an interest in her work, saying something like, I’ve always painted like this and the galleries didn’t like it, now suddenly they do.
Are we meant to just keep creating in the hope that at some point in our career, our vision will align with that of a gallery? In which case, how do we sustain ourselves?
Until next time
JC
I can’t recommend any books on how to make money from art, I haven’t found any that resonate with me, have you?
That's funny about #3 because those have been my more "popular" posts on Insta - showing the "unveiling of the solargraphs" videos. BUT, I'm also not selling the art actively so... maybe it doesn't make a difference? With solargraphy it feels like people want to know how the images are made because it's such a niche photography process. But, again, I'm also haven't attempted making money from it...so ... :p